LOS ANGELES —
Samsara is as frustrating as it is beautiful — which is saying a lot because the film is
laced with exquisite images.

Director and cinematographer Ron Fricke and his producer and co-editor, Mark Magidson, dragged
their cumbersome 65 mm cameras to some of the world’s remotest areas, hitting 100 locations in 25
countries in five years.

In one instance, they spent four hours hiking in and out of a Native American ruin in Arizona
called Betatakin to film what turned out to be about eight seconds of screen time.

The results — as in the previous films that Fricke has photographed, including
Baraka,
Chronos and
Koyaanisqatsi — can take your breath away. There are aerial shots of the temple complex at
Bagan in Myanmar, views of an elaborate sand painting being created at a Tibetan monastery in
Ladakh in India, even some time-lapse photography of the venerable Los Angeles freeways that is
stunning.

Samsara is a Sanskrit word referring to what the film’s press material calls “the
ever-turning wheel of life” — the cycle of birth, death and rebirth that is central to many Asian
religions.

The idea behind the film, as with the others from Fricke, is to offer what he calls a guided
meditation that encourages one to contemplate what a strange and beautiful place the world is.

But, unless you are stoned when you see
Samsara, those possessing ordinary human curiosity will probably want to know what they’re
looking at.

Operating on the principle that the image is all that matters,
Samsara refuses to let us know what we are seeing. Yes, the closing credits function as a
type of square-up reel, listing all the locations, but the names go by too fast and come too late
to offer much help.

Some places, such as Burma’s Bagan or Jordan’s Petra or the ancient Kaaba in Mecca, are so
familiar that we know them immediately and take the same pleasure in their presence that we would
if glimpsing a friendly face at a glamorous cocktail party where we’re not sure we belong.

Other places are equally fascinating, but, to find out where they are, you have to do research
on the film’s website.